BRING OUT YOUR DOUBLES!

I have many holes in my CDN collection and many duplicate rare 2nd copies to trade for.

Right now he is making too much money on ebay. Have you seen the prices that he is getting on his weekly ice collectibles auctions ?? Must be raking it in from Canadian collectors who no longer wish to buy from the USA !

Thankfully, the silly ‘Top 10’ lists have stopped ! C’mon Walt- get off yer arse & bring back CBD, your public awaits !!

Have a Great Holiday, folks !!- LF

now…ROM….I find these books surprisingly good reading…I only have maybe 10 issues but enjoy them!

Speaking of, I need a super cat, my cat can’t deal with them downstairs and upstairs at night without at least the power to fly. 🙁

Its not much of a Playmate either 🙂

Speaking of comics I prefer Krypto the super dog and day even on a dog day

Speaking of books after #94 that deserve respect:

Underrated book: X-Men #96 1st Moira McTaggart – those of us that read the generational change that was Powers/House of X have an understanding of why this should be much bigger than it is…plus..a Scottish housekeeper who goes from Hello to wielding an M-16 within a few pages of her introduction – how can you not love this character!

My memory could be faulty, but I seem to recall a goofy cover with Lois sewing up a rip in Superman’s costume. That wouldn’t count.

Gerald, I agree, and I’m glad you picked my column to come out of the closet in.

Chris, you’re spot on, send it down to 12th place! Use your veto and get it outta there!!!

Brilliant!!!

277 Detective Comics Neal Adams homage…
272 Vermin
286 Deathlok cover
241 Frank Miller’s Punisher – 10th appearence and 1st outside of ASM
230 Hulk smash – didn’t get the bost it deserved from the movie
125 Marie Severin chewing gum and kicking @ss….and she’s all outta gum
137 spider-man as villian in almost a Mysterio-like pose
154 picture frame + avengers
198 if I don’t put a Jack kirby in here I’ll get feedback – and it’s a scope cover, i like them
224 Bob McLeod cover over mike Zeck’s first pencils. damn fine

The amount of inventory in that warehouse makes me want to run out and dump everything. Is that a pile of Longbow Hunters? I will have to tell CGC to stop the grading process for mine and return it, I was hoping for $$$ from the sale of that one.

Thar was a sweet book Spider, deep colors on that beauty.

Dave, that blob thing reminds me more of those slime monsters in Ghostbusters !

I’d expect the other image is pulled from another Fawcett horror cover but not finding a match; a close blob is on another Beware cover. Maybe he knocked it off especially for the ad, since he was a house artists. This Magazine is Haunted had no matches there, but some more great horror covers also. Fawcett was tops on this stuff stuff (and inside was often George Evans and Bob Powell—these are close competitors with EC’s horror titles.

Baily was in his prime on horror comics and worked for several companies…he started his own company in 1943. It did four specialty comics with Operas, probably only circulated in NYC or maybe Chicago and other big cities? .25 I think it was…Faust, Aida, Carmen and Rioletto…very collectible and scarce, printed on stiff paper, 16pgs, in black, white and red. I still need two of them myself. He drew Carmen on his own.

https://www.comics.org/issue/70545/

Tales of the Unexpected # 77

Perhaps if that sharp winner had not been tapped out at that point he/she would have pursued the Rocket and Wow.

“I estimate it at being a fairly niche enterprise of no more than a couple of hundred” – let’s have some more enthusiasm, shall we? I think the backstory of Canadian comics makes them super-cool for any comic collector anywhere. (And I say that with total objectivity.)

In all seriousness – having an exit strategy is important for all of us collectors – how is it to go, will you do it? will your loved ones disburse it, how would that look like? Don’t wait until you’re looking Death in the face to start thinking about it (and your collection too).

It’s to the point where I’ve added a little blurb that I’ll trade Walkmen for silver-age ASM! Surely one of these guys has a pile of Ditko/Romita books lying around….a man can but hope!

Junot states that in issue that Wolk thinks that in #51 of The Fantastic Four Jack Kirby and Stan Lee ‘hit the motherlode; discovered the precise amount of human misery you need to inflict on a superhero in order to sell the galactic and fantastic, to make it real”

He goes on to say ‘The galactic fantastic without human anguish: kid stuff
Human anguish without the galactic: soap opera

But the two blended together in the right proportions equaled a new type of imaginative vibranium (whatever that means)

Then says that Kirby and Lee cracked the Galactus Equation.

From my foggy memory I thought Galactus was the comic book figure to describe current frightening politics to the south and you might confirm with more knowledge than I. My comics have been in the basement for 40 years. So I am not going down there to confirm this.

I will consider a coffee with you.

M.

Wayne! You have to pop into the shop, we can enjoy some coffee and philosophize a bit, maybe even talk some comics! I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know enough of the 60s story arcs to form and kind of insightful opinion on that interesting question. Can I egg you on to share your views and insights? To start things off?

I returned to comic collecting in the 1970s and did some comic art exhibitions. You know more than I of the details of the period but what from your vast knowledge of the 1960-70s, if that is the period, best characterizes the current political chaos.

Who is the character who wants to dominate the world. And who fought against him ?

Just got a shipment of comics – only about 40 this time – so the next month will be cleaning and pressing and selling my under copies. Got some nice John Buscema Avengers – lovely! The other thing i can note is that I can always upgrade a Miller DD – my undercopy will sell within moments…always surprises me the enduring popularity of the run, I’d even say – due to it having a lower price point – that it sells quicker than early Claremont X-Men. 94-142 will easily average $100 per issue (obviously 95,95,100,101,121 are outliers) whilst DD will average around $20 for high grade…therefore the market is bigger (especially in uninspiring economic conditions).

Rohan! Nothing to be sorry about the snow. We haven’t had this in a long time and it feels right to have a “good ol’ Canadian winter” again.

I didn’t get the pics !!! Just the sight of someone I know enjoying plus 30 degree weather will be good enough for me at this point… anything!!

I’ve always liked the laissez faire approach to economics, less government intervention, less regulation, less trade barriers, etc. I think the Yanks would be making a mistake limiting the free trade of goods, everyone will lose. I’m not sure what the difference between an optimist and a fool is, but I’m hopeful things won’t get to there.

I noted to Mark and Mel that what I really need is a Canadian selling forum! I’ve worked out how to use ebay.ca and filter to Canada only….but a nice bunch of Canucks buying and selling would be ideal.

Sorry to get political, but it’s definitely impacting my buying and reading at the moment.

How’s everyone else feeling?

and sorry to hear about your snow, that’s a real bummer…Walt I message you some photos on Saturday from a nice bike ride, but it’ll be early in the day though because it is going to be 35!!! (that’s 102 degrees in fascistheit).

Robin, that was the thoughtful and thorough assessment of these publishers and this era that I wanted to write but simply didn’t have the knowledge, thanks for the insights.

I offered my wife my Incredible Hulk, she said it’s not to her liking
what’s not to like? It’s high grade, it’s clean and not been damaged by my biking
Romita Spidey, Genes DD, Big John’s Avengers… she’s never picked up any of these reads
The missus must prefer Brunner cause she mentioned it’s my the Giant Size Man-Size that she needs

Having lived through Dave Stevens getting well and truly overhyped last year as a whole generation of neckbeard YT influencers finally discovered him I’ve seen some INSANE sales figures for his oeuvre, so at the moment I’d stay away, let him subside from the limelight a little.

Other books I avoid in the current market: anything with Galactus (after the FF trailer last week) and the one that constantly surprises me is ASM #78 Prowler – great cover in a great run but the Prowler in the Spider-Verse movies is not Hobie (his uncle Aaron is Ultimate Comics:Spider-Man #1)…the movie heated up the book…but not the right book! My figuring is if a movie heats up a book then she has to cool (but that #78 sure is taking its sweet time)

Hey Spider, yes, we could get Vince to sign those !!

I’d have Captain America #110 up there somewhere. Incredible Hulk #1, that started it all, a superb cover that really outshines Romita’s Spider-Man #50 with the same theme….Avengers #1, 3 or 4?

Fantastic Four #25, the Things vs. the Hulk? #27, vis Subby as he takes Sue away from Reed? #39, with Doctor Doom AND Daredevil, a stunning Kirby scene.

I did like the Steranko choice of the Hulk, yes…and Strange Tales #107, again, this one is well thought out and a good one, albeit offbeat.

I think one issue is, you’ve got too big a universe to pick from. All the way from the first six Hulks and FF and Spidey, up to 1970, that’s a lot of books. I admit I have some bias with my age when I started collecting all these titles (Spring 1964)…but I humbly suggest there’s a lot of better covers out there than several of your choices! If you want controversy, you have it from me!

I try and ride the bike everyday in the beautiful summer weather here, early mornings…then come home and chill out by doing some cleaning and pressing…and currently reading Jonah Hex, what a fantastic character! He reminds me a bit of Walt, sure Walt doesn’t have the guns, girls, gambling and charisma…but Luck and Looks they seem to be on the same level.

On the desk is Justice League #86 with a great Superman cover by Neal Adams and a socially sensitive story by Denny O’Neil…she’s cleaned up very well…now it’s time to give her a read!

Enjoy my fellow nutcases, enjoy!

Merry Christmas to all of my fellow collectors, may all your Avengers be by Buscema!

I still have a shipment due before the end of the year – it’s been a good year of collecting, nothing huge, upgraded the Hulk #180…but lots of good quality silver age books came into my hands and culled down the later bronze stuff too, it’s always a pleasure to really keep the collection tight. The cleaning and pressing continues to improve, learning new techniques and once again another way to find pleasure in this hobby.

I’ve also started to read books digitally this year, just finished the Jonah Hex run (of 92 issues) – great fun but not anything that I need to spend time gathering up…also treat it like I do Spotify – great way to test things to determine if I want a physical copy!

What about everyone else? How’s your year been as a comic collector?

Old Tom is not someone you want to mess with, actually anyone that into watersports should be steered clear of

That True Sport cover is beautiful work, but I think westerns will take off before this book. From the looks of Tom McCarthy, he is on so much stuff that he’s in no condition to keep his guys from cheating and killing. I played intramural _inner tube_ water polo in college, and there was even cheating there.

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?q=marvel+secret+wars+8&pubid=&PubRng=

My rule of thumb with them is to take 80% of the lowest price as about market. That would be 575 – 115 = 460. So I think yours did well.

Either somebody impulse buying on eBay or somebody trying to game GPA.

Offhand I agree that is the best Hulk vs. Thing. CBR agrees:

https://www.cbr.com/top-five-hulk-vs-thing-covers/